The invention relates to an automatic mechanism appliance with electric connection terminals having a front face which is opposite a fixing base and which has retention means adapted for cooperating with fixing means belonging to a removable label with rank or function identification characters.
Electric automatic mechanism appliances such as contact makers, thermal relays and, accessorily, isolating switches, circuit breakers or fuse boxes generally have on their front face a multiplicity of openings for clamping conductors in terminals in the vicinity of which are written standardized wiring references; fairly frequently, in all cases where internal parts are forced to move during changes of state of the appliance, coupling claws may appear in the plane of this front face so that means may be coupled thereto for controlling auxiliary contact blocks which may be time delayed or not, whose cases are themselves fixed to this face; in some cases, for example when it is a question of appliances such as thermal relays, rotary adjustment means or resetting pushers appear in the plane of the front faces.
The presence of these connection, coupling, actuating or adjusting means results in an extremely reduced area available for affixing to this front face means for identifying the rank or function which this appliance has or provides in a complete automatic system.
These identification means are generally in the form of removable labels which are secured to the front face of the appliance by locking means cooperating with retention means for example in the form of slides, or in the form of hooks, or cavities adapted for cooperating with corresponding means on the label.
A difficulty arises consequently when such appliances are provided with additional optical signalling means which are designed to inform the user or the maintenance staff of their electric state, in particular using their front face.
It has already been proposed to affix to such appliances state or voltage presence signalling means which are disposed in small auxiliary cases, placed on one of the lateral faces of the appliance which are perpendicular to the fixing plate or panel or to the front face.
When these side faces are inaccessible, for example if a series of appliances is formed by an association which places them one against the other, or else if some of these faces are occupied by functional cases electrically or mechanically associated therewith, as is the case for reciprocal locking means, or for interference protection means or for thermal relays, optical representation of the electric state of these different appliances can only be obtained by adding indicators or signalling lamps which will have to be disposed near-by on a surface portion of the plate or panel which, consequently, cannot be used for other purposes and which will correspondingly increase the volume of the cabinets receiving the automatic mechanism systems.
The fact of fixing to the doors or to the covers of cabinets, respectively cases receiving such installations, a portion of such signalling means in fact forms a costly solution permitting the general working and monitoring of the system, but which does not give the maintenance staff the possibility of acquiring rapidly and directly from the system the electric state relations which a multiplicity of appliances, each having a particular function, must present with respect to each other.